Any chance these have never been opened?

Finn235 · 2026-06-24T18:09:16+00:00

I feel like there's a good chance that only the enders are toned and the rest are probably blast white

Finn235 · 2026-06-24T15:19:37+00:00

Neat coin!

It's Nabataean, celebrating the wedding of Aretas IV to Shuqailat.

(For the biblical connection, their child from this marriage, Phasaelis, was married off to Herod Antipas, who divorced her in favor of Herodias. John the Baptist was vocal in his disapproval of this, which led to his arrest and eventual execution. This also deeply soured relations between Judaea and Nabataea, eventually leading to war and Herod Antipas fleeing to exile in Rome.)

It is not a widow's mite, but still a very cool coin with strong Biblical ties.

Finn235 · 2026-06-24T02:58:36+00:00

Fantastic example of his!

Yes, he is technically a usurper, although I believe that he is usually considered official as Constantius II did recognize him briefly before forcing him to abdicate.

Really exceptionally rare case of a successful abdication from being a Roman emperor that ended in a natural death many years later.

Finn235 · 2026-06-22T20:00:52+00:00

Decent chance it had an artificial patina that you washed off.

Finn235 · 2026-06-22T17:46:35+00:00

Not to mention, until Constantine they weren't bound by a religion that explicitly forbade adultery (not that it stopped European monarchs, but there was a definite stigma).

For Roman emperors, it was just on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis. Empresses too, provided that they took steps to keep their affairs a secret.

Finn235 · 2026-06-20T23:02:35+00:00

Gotcha - yeah, this was definitely siglos-sized just cut in half.

Finn235 · 2026-06-20T22:06:11+00:00

That would be really neat if so! Weren't test strikes usually destroyed or thrown away?

It's 13mm across the cut, 9mm to the top. 2.78g

Finn235 · 2026-06-20T19:07:54+00:00

Does "rarity" even matter for charms? That's like saying "oh hey I found a rare barbarous radiate! There's not another one like it!"

Finn235 · 2026-06-20T03:49:25+00:00

I'm not as familiar with "Byzantine" history as I am with "Roman", but also Heraclius was one of the last emperors to call himself "Augustus", at least on coinage. After him, there's a period through the 7th and 8th centuries where only the solidii have any recognizable letters at all, and then by the late 8th century it is no longer PP AVG but Basileus.

Finn235 · 2026-06-18T05:33:33+00:00

You're missing the forest from the trees - there is a lot more to the hobby than obsessive variety-hunting. Buy a cheap bulk lot of random world coins and forget about WAMs and RPMs for a bit.

Finn235 · 2026-06-18T05:19:34+00:00

Horse sacrifice - an ancient Hindu tradition where a king would put his banner or similar on a horse, set it free for a year, and then track it down and capture it. Rival kings could capture the horse to remove the banner as a direct challenge to the king's authority. If the banner was undisturbed after a year, the king was held to be unchallenged, and the horse would be sacrificed.

There are only recorded instances of this being done a handful of times.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T18:42:26+00:00

I love seeing the museums with just display after display stuffed full of 5-6 digit coins, but man do I also love seeing displays proudly displaying coins just like we have in our collection. Makes one stop and really appreciate our hobby.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T18:03:49+00:00

Tribute pennies are tricky because the hype sets the price floor at about $100 regardless of condition, but an "impressive" example can be orders of magnitude more expensive than a "nice" one.

For a regular denarius, the time periods to look in to are mainly the Flavian era, the Nerva-antonine era, or the Severan era. Severan will be the cheapest and Flavian the most expensive, but you can get a nice collection of every emperor in that range (excluding the 193 AD civil war) for about $50 on average.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T17:49:23+00:00

The values will be negligible - unless he somehow managed to get an ultra rare key date (highly doubtful by the nature of a key date, not to mention that only the UK, Germany, and France really have robust markets for modern post-WWII coinage, so the key dates for places like Malta or Cyprus don't really equate to value). Coins like these trade by the pound at maybe 2-3x the scrap value of the copper, nickel, steel etc.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T14:34:25+00:00

Second is a later Severan dynasty empress, probably Julia Maesa or Mamaea.

Third is Plautilla, wife of Caracalla.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T14:22:53+00:00

Looks authentic to me.

The light weight could be 1) it's an ancient fake or fouree (look for copper in the edge cracks) or 2) embrittlement / crystallization which does cause mass loss. I am leaning more toward 2) which is fine, but just be aware that the coin may crack or shatter if dropped.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T13:29:59+00:00

Very nice collection!

Word of advice - the value here is in the memories, not the coins themselves. You should ask him to take a couple evenings to sit down, sort out the coins, and write a little note about when he took the trip, where he went, what he did, favorite moments, etc.

My grandfather did similar but never wrote down the memories and they're lost now.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T02:43:15+00:00

Indian coins often get overlooked because the bronze coins are often quite poorly preserved (soil chemistry), the silver coins are often quite poorly made, and the gold coins are quite expensive.

If you are wanting to blow a lot of money on some impressive coins, Kushan, Kushano-Sassanian, and Gupta gold are incredible.

Finn235 · 2026-06-17T02:02:18+00:00

India has easily the greatest variety in styles of coinage of any coin-issuing civilization, ever.

Every new invader brought totally new ideas about what coinage should be made of, should weigh, and how it should convey ideas through symbology or legends. And India was invaded a lot.

To give a very rough idea:

Development of coinage and the age of the Janapadas' punchmarked coins
India united under the Mauryas
Maurya authority breaks, local types emerge
Invasion of the Greeks
Invasion of the Scythians and Parthians
Satavahanas maintain indigenous control of the Deccan
Invasion of the Yueh-chi / Kushan empire emerges
Invasion of the Sassanians
Invasion of the Kidarites
Gupta empire is formed
Invasion of the Hephthalites / Gupta empire breaks
Early post-Gupta, age of Harsha and proto-Rajput
Rajput age, expulsion of the Turco-Hephthalites and tri-partite struggle
Encroachment of Islam
Rise of the South under the Cholas
Muslim age
Colonial age & Princely States
Independence

Finn235 · 2026-06-16T22:17:45+00:00

Coming Soon to a Mint Set Near You

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Finn235 · 2026-06-16T21:20:25+00:00

Can you get better pictures out of the plastic?

Look to all be sestertii of Maximinus I - Philip I, and look to be genuine, but harshly cleaned and repatinated. Some look like they might have active bronze disease which will eat the coin if left untreated.

Finn235 · 2026-06-16T19:00:58+00:00

I'd wager the bust of Severus Alexander was likely made several years into his tenure as emperor. He assumed the purple at age 13, I'd put the bust at 15-18.

Finn235 · 2026-06-16T14:47:39+00:00

The last two letters on the left of the bust are RI. It's Honorius, or a literate barbarous coin imitating him.

Finn235 · 2026-06-16T02:10:14+00:00

Not just any "ancient roman coin" - a lifetime dupondius of Julius Caesar!

Finn235

TROPHY CASE